I report on the business of sports for Forbes' SportsMoney group. My sports interests range from baseball and hockey to cricket and Formula One, though I specialize mainly in college football and basketball. Studying sports business interests me both as a writer and a sports fan, and I've found that digging through financial reports is often just as enjoyable as combing a box score. Reach me at csmith@forbes.com and follow me on Twitter @ChrisSmith813.

Bloomberg's Marathon Mistake And Other Post-Sandy New York Sports

It doesn't take "Spidey Senses" to know not to run a marathon in the immediate wake of Hurricane Sandy. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

Like many people in the New York City metro area, I’ve been out of commission for a few days thanks to Sandy’s vicious visit. While disconnected from the world at large I, again like countless others up and down the Eastern Seaboard, also fell out of touch with the sports world. Even the National Guard couldn’t tell me who won Monday night’s matchup between the Cardinals and 49ers.

I was fortunately able to relocate from powerless Hoboken to the comfort of my parents’ Bergen County home and, while I still don’t have TV or Internet, I’ve thankfully been able to catch up on some sports news. After making the mistake of listening to Mike Francesca spend no fewer than 20 minutes describing how he replaced a flat tire, I finally learned that billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg is planning to run the New York Marathon as scheduled this Sunday.

Really? I’m a big fan of the marathon, but really? My impression, albeit a limited one, is that most people disagree with Bloomberg on this, and I’m definitely in their camp.

About 650,000 New Yorkers are still without power, and many will continue to be in the dark for more than another week. The marathon will only divert much-needed resources and personnel from ensuring the safety of endangered civilians to putting on a footrace. It’s a big footrace, to be sure, but a footrace nonetheless. I just can’t begin to grasp how or why the marathon should take any sort of priority over getting New York City up and running again as soon as possible.

Bloomberg’s main argument is that the city gets a major economic boost from the race, an estimated $340 million according to some sources. But claims about the race’s economic importance are likely overstated this year considering how damage caused by Sandy will severely diminish the race’s potential impact. It’s doubtful that many New Yorkers will give up valuable daylight hours to take in some running, and prospective visitors will have plenty of trouble both getting into the city and finding a place to stay once there.

In light of Bloomberg’s marathon backing, it’s even more surprising that he postponed last night’s much awaited season-opening game between the Nets and Knicks. It was scheduled to be the first game in Brooklyn’s brand new $1 billion Barclays Center, a great battle between the quite-literally-old guard of New York and a young, exciting Nets squad. Apparently a single basketball game is too much for the city to handle, but a five-borough race with more than 40,000 participants and thousands of other volunteers, staffers and city employees is no problem.

For those just now coming out of the dark, here’s a roundup of the other major sports stories out of New York in recent days:

The Giants host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, and MetLife Stadium is surprisingly undamaged and ready to go (though fans accustomed to taking the train there will have to find an alternate route). In fact, the Giants have been logging extra hours at practice because the team’s facilities have power while the majority of players still don’t have lights on at their homes. It should be an exciting game, but whether the Giants’ overtime this week translates to a stronger performance on Sunday will have to wait to be seen.

The Jets have a much-needed bye this week after getting absolutely dismantled by the Dolphins last weekend. The week off might help the team, but it will unfortunately do little to stymie the mind-numbingly dumb arguments about Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow. The team has a million problems and Sanchez is far from the top of the list. Even if the Jets wanted to address the quarterback situation, Tebow is not the answer. Not now and not in the future.

Most sports fans are likely content to ignore baseball for the next few months, so we can keep this part brief. The Yankees are stuck with Alex Rodriguez and his $114 million in remaining salary for now; USA Today reports that no teams have expressed interest in the aging slugger and that Rodriguez has no plans to waive his no-trade clause. David Wright will be with the Mets in 2013, but his long-term future is still unclear as the two sides are at a deadlock in contract negotiations. I’d point the Mets to the beginning of this paragraph as a reminder that while having a dominant slugger at third can sometimes be invaluable (see A-Rod circa October 2009), a long, expensive contract could be disastrous in the long-run.

Speaking of long runs: seriously, Bloomberg, no marathon. At least wait until running can be enjoyed as a sport again, and not just the best way to get around Manhattan.

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Chris, Bloomberg must have read your post and decided the same thing. The marathon has been cancelled. I’m not in NYC but it did seem a stretch to hold the marathon when so much clean up and electricity restoration has to happen first.